New Embellishing Machine

I bought a Husqvarna Viking Embellishing machine a few weeks ago. It is so much fun!! You can see it here.

I already have a needle punch accessory kit for my Bernina, but it isn't working exactly right at the moment. I think that something is out of alignment, because every time I use it, I break needles. That didn't happen when the kit was new. I know how to move the fabric slowly to avoid needle breakage; but when I look at the needles, they don't look centered over the hole. My dealer is about 70 miles away, so I always try to make an appointment to take the machine in first thing in the morning, do other shopping, and pick it up late in the afternoon. The technician has been too busy to make that same-day appointment. I was signed up for Dale Rollerson's Embellish Stitch and Enrich class (here) that started August 12th, and I'd been thinking about a stand alone machine for awhile, so when I learned that my dealer couldn't repair my needle punch accessory before the 12th, I took the plunge.

One of the advantages to a stand alone machine is that this technique generates a LOT of lint; and I do mean a LOT!! The attachment requires changing a lot of things on the machine, and of course cleaning it very thoroughly after I'm done. With the embellisher machine, I can leave it set up all the time, and cleaning it is so much easier. There just isn't much to the machine - no bobbin case or bobbin area to brush out or oil.

Eventually I'll get the attachment repaired, and then I might try to sell it. But in the meantime, I'm having fun with my Embellisher.

I've just been playing with it a lot, making up samples to put in a book. Here are some of the things I've done:





Both of these show various fibers punched into felt.



These are tulle and organza punched into felt.



This has cheesecloth, batik, and soy silk punched into felt.



And this one has felt punched into felt; the top flower is from the front, and the bottom one is from the back.